The present disclosure relates to a vehicle grounding device which electrically conducts an electrical component incorporated in an attached member to an attachment member which is electrically conducted to a vehicle body, thereby grounding the electrical component.
Conventionally, for example, a cruise switch is used as a member of a cruise control apparatus for enabling a vehicle to travel at a constant speed. Usually, such a cruise switch is configured as a lever switch which is disposed in the vicinity of the steering wheel, and which has various indications for operation such as “ON/OFF”, “RES”, “SET”, and “CANCEL” in the tip end portion. Recently, it is contemplated that these indications are to be illuminated. Therefore, a cruise switch is designed so that a light emitter such as a light emitting diode is incorporated in a tip end portion of a lever of the cruise switch (hereinafter, such a lever is referred to as “cruise switch lever”).
Usually, the light emitting diode incorporated in the tip end portion of the cruise switch lever is grounded by the following configuration. A lead wire connected to the negative electrode of the light emitting diode is passed through the cruise switch lever, and connected to a conductor disposed in an insulator which is installed in the lever. The conductor in the insulator is connected via a connector and a further lead wire to a steering roll connector which is disposed in the vicinity of the steering wheel, and which is electrically conductive with the vehicle body. For example, such configuration is described in JP-A-11-301379.
In the above configuration, the number of electrodes of the connector is increased in order to perform the grounding of the light emitting diode. Therefore, the size of the connector is enlarged in accordance with the increased number of the electrodes, and the attachment space for the cruise switch lever must be widened. Moreover, the lead wire from the connector is required, and hence the production cost is increased. In the steering roll connector, the channel number is increased in order to form the grounding connection, and the production cost is further increased.